Quantum Physics in high school: a bakhtinian analysis of Physics textbooks approved at PNLDEM 2015

Abstract

In this work we present an analysis of Quantum Physics texts present in the fourteen books approved by the National Textbook Plan for High School in 2015. We used Bakhtin’s Philosophy of Language as a theoretical and methodological framework. Our aim was to evaluate which approaches are used by textbook authors to introduce Quantum Physics as well as which concepts and epistemological views are stated in these presentations. Our results show that all books present a historical approach, limited to the Old Quantum Physics. Concepts and presentation sequences are very similar to what can be found in Modern Physics undergraduate textbooks, containing even the same historiographic mistakes. This suggests that authors state what they have learned during undergraduate courses without any further critical review. All books present lexical choice that can be associated to positivist epistemology, and thirteen books present a compositional structure allied to the same view, which is considered epistemologically outdated. The reductionist textbook presentation indicates the necessity of breaking up with the hegemonic positivist perspective.

Keywords

• física quântica
• livro didático
• bakhtin